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Sydney Underhill
Sydney Underhill (also known as "Cruel Sydney Underhill" within the Resistance) is a young woman who was previously a privateer of the Resistance and the Captain of the ''Grand Fife, ''the crew of which includes Samantha Hawkins and Jewel Zabra. She is the main character of "Common Motives." Physical Appearance Sydney is 5'8" in height and weighs approximately 145 lbs. Being of Marleybonian decent, she has fair, pale skin. Her hair is shoulder - length, black, and coarse, and she does not brush it often. Sydney's eyes are grey and are often described by Severina as "stone - like", meaning that they appear dull and unreflective. Throughout the course of "Common Motives," Sydney has been said to have dark, sunken circles underneath her eyes, indicating her severe lack of sleep. Sydney is neither large nor slender, and most of her weight is carried in her legs. She has a small bust and a narrow waist, although her hips are significantly wider, and her legs are often described as thick and muscular. She wears a black tricorne hat with a single grey feather, along with grey pants and a long black leather coat. Sydney also wears knee - high boots that have a thick (but elevated) heel, as they are often described as "heavy - sounding." However, in Chapter 52, she exchanges these clothes out for an Armada Musketeer's uniform made out of black fabric and trimmed with gold brocade that she fashioned herself. By that point, she had lost a significant amount of weight and muscle, as it is stated that she lost nearly six inches off of her waist via self - starvation in a matter of a month. Sydney's age at the beginning of Common Motives is 19, but by the end of the storyline, she is 22. Her primary weapon is a large, heavy, double - bladed poleaxe. Personality Throughout the entirety of "Common Motives", Sydney was primarily driven by the thought of gaining and rising to power. It has been hinted that this was a common fantasy of hers before the events of "Common Motives", but upon her acquiring of the Armada musketeer Custos Quintus, she began to seek to make her dreams a reality. Several chapters focus mainly on her internal struggles that are caused by this, as her humanity and sympathy work against her lust for power and control. Externally, she seems to be a very calm person, and when she speaks to her crew, her voice is described as deep (for a woman) and harsh. She often speaks and responds in one to two word sentences and is extremely blunt when it comes to dealing with others, with the exception of Quintus, who she practically covets. Sydney harbors a great amount of self - hatred, ranging from body dysmorphia to disgust at her humanity, which she considers to be weakness. She also has a fixation with perfection and achieving what is her definition of it. Background Sydney, born Sydney Alice Underhill, was born to Elizabeth and Alexander Underhill, a noble couple in Marleybone. As a child, she was said to have had an extremely restricted life, as she was almost never allowed out of the manor (the only exception being to go to church on Sundays). However, she had somehow managed to forge and maintain a secret friendship with Benjamin Spinnaker, a boy of her own age who was the apprentice of a firearms manufacturer. When she was of twelve years of age, Sydney snuck on board a ship while it was being prepared to set sail, hiding herself in the cargo hold (this was relatively easy for her, as the manor was close to the docks). Her intent had merely been to explore, but before she could leave the ship, it had set sail with her still trapped in the cargo hold. Being too frightened to call for help, Sydney had remained silent and hidden. However, after two days, the ship had been struck by a sky storm and was demolished while it was sailing through the skyways of Skull Island - and Sydney, who had managed to cling to a piece of driftwood, was found washed up on the shores of Skull Island. She had then been taken in by the Capatin Horace Avery, as well as the other teachers of Skull Island, and was trained as a privateer until she was twenty years old, which was when she declared herself and her crew as independent from the operations and orders of the Resistance. It has, so far, been unspecified as to ''when ''Sydney had gained Samantha Hawkins and Jewel Zabra as crewmates, although it is generally accepted that they had been sailing with her for at least three years before the first chapter of Common Motives. Role in "Common Motives" Sydney Underhill is the main character of Common Motives. In the first few chapters of the story, she is said to be a stereotypical agent of the Resistance - with a ship, a crew, and an agenda against the Armada. She was already in possession of the Armada musketeer Custos Quintus at the time of her introduction. At first, Sydney is portrayed as a privateer who is, despite being rather dull in personality, loyal and faithful to her crew. However, as the story advances, she begins to develop a fixation with the Armada clockworks, shown by her abduction of the officer Optimus Caerulus in chapter 12 and, later on, her unsuccessful attempt to shift Caerulus' allegiance to her by infusing her blood within his veins in chapter 39. As this obsession develops, so does her craving for power (or rather, for greatness) that she claims the Resistance never gave her a chance to achieve, which was her true reason for breaking ties with them. She starts to look at her humanity as weakness, as well as her dependence on the help of her crewmates, and she develops a hatred for her physical and mental being, as shown by her several breakdowns which take place in her own cabin, with Quintus being the only witness. Meanwhile, her crewmates, Samantha Hawkins and Jewel Zabra, notice that something is off about her, but they determine it as being their own paranoia or their own overreaction and never actually confront Sydney about it, all the meanwhile continuing to unknowingly aid her in her own quest for power. Her true intentions are found out after Sydney's successful attack on the Supreme Commander Kane, when Jewel and Samantha discover the terminated form of Optimus Caerulus lying across the floor of her cabin. Quintus stuns them, and Sydney locks the both of them up in the brig, only speaking to them once (to show them Quintus' eyes), but never returning to them afterwards. With her crew now of no use to her, Sydney sets sail for the Isle of Doom, and hides herself in the Ancient Ruins after using her own blood to convert several clockwork marines. She slowly begins to build her own Armada in this manner, and it grows even faster when she realizes that the blood of her shifted clockworks is just as effective as her own in the shifting process. While her Armada of turned clockworks grows, Sydney becomes progressively more and more insane, as is mainly shown in her neglect of her own health, although her insanity is also caused by the guilt that had resulted from abandoning her ship and crew. By chapter 52, Sydney is described to have a sunken face, with her eyes bloodshot while the flesh around them is purple and grey. The most drastic of all of her health declinations is her loss of six inches from the circumference of her waist in a matter of a single month, which is an extremely unhealthy amount of weight to lose via self - starvation (which is the likely method that she used). Although it is frequently shown that Sydney regretted abandoning Samantha and Jewel, her actions did not mirror this, as shown by how she had killed Jewel by disemboweling her with her bare hands when confronted by the swashbuckler. She then became nearly consumed by her own guilt, refusing to leave the platform upon which her throne was mounted on at any cost and secluding herself from almost all interaction, except for with Quintus. Sydney was not directly responsible for ending Samantha's life as she had with Jewel, but assumes the guilt for it all the same - she later adds another death to this list when she fatally punctures Dangler's lungs with a makeup brush in battle. Soon after this, Sydney died via exsanguination after an attempt to carve off her own face and replace it with an Armada musketeer's mask went horribly wrong. Category:Characters